Nursery

Development of remote setting and nursery technologies for the green mussel (Perna viridis)

In the Philippines, mussel culture starts with the installation of several spat collectors such as bamboo stakes in the mussel farms. These mussel farm structures (with attached spats) remain in the farm until the spats reach marketable sizes suitable for harvesting.

However, collectors are insufficient when there is overabundance of spats. Many unattached spats die because of predation from crabs, fish, starfishes, and other mollusk species. Collecting spats using black nets can minimize mortality, and the collected spats can be brought to nursery for rearing.

Hatchery-produced spats also require nursery rearing before they are brought to the grow-out farms. Nurseries serve as interface between the hatcheries and grow-out phase. They aid in growing smaller seeds at low cost to sizes suitable for transfer to grow-out trays, bags, and nets.

This project aims to develop schemes to hold and grow larvae in nurseries and develop protocols to deliver spats to growers. Nursery and holding facilities will also be established.

Project Leaders

Benefits

• Readily available seeds for grow-out culture and transplantation to expansion areas.
• Relatively cheap and easy to manage nursery facilities

Target Beneficiaries

• Mussel farmers
• Hatchery and nursery operators

Location

• Iloilo
• Aklan